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Wan' s Art Blog!

@comanderwanderer

An exhausted bi argentinian Bi chick, with NOTHING to do, really. 

some scattered lucy thoughts from today...

Town is very pleasant just now, and we go a good deal to picture-galleries and for walks and rides in the park. As to the tall, curly-haired man, I suppose it was the one who was with me at the last Pop.

Aside from the 'oh this is all so boring' joke, this list of activities definitely points to Lucy being a very active person. Later on she also talks about other things she likes to do which support this. I think Lucy is a bubbly and outgoing/active person who usually has a lot of energy.

He has a curious habit of looking one straight in the face, as if trying to read one's thoughts. He tries this on very much with me, but I flatter myself he has got a tough nut to crack. I know that from my glass. Do you ever try to read your own face? I do, and I can tell you it is not a bad study, and gives you more trouble than you can well fancy if you have never tried it.

@dathen has a great more heartwrenching take on this line which I just reblogged, but in a more lighthearted direction I just love the image of Lucy making faces at herself in the mirror. I want so badly to see someone make cute art of it.

I do not, as you know, take sufficient interest in dress to be able to describe the new fashions. Dress is a bore. That is slang again, but never mind; Arthur says that every day.

Lucy doesn't care much about fashion. I kind of wonder if her mother cares more and always tries to ensure Lucy is in the latest fashions or whatever, and it's something she's lightheartedly complained about with Mina before. It feels like a familiar reference.

Also, Lucy seems like the type of person to have fun being caught up in new interests that people she likes enjoy. She finds it really fun to imitate Arthur's slang, and gets kinda proud about the idea of being an interesting psychological study, and that sort of thing. She is probably a really good listener. (And now I'm picturing Mina excitedly infodumping to Lucy as they walk along holding hands, Lucy listening with great interest. 10/10 date.)

But oh, Mina, I love him; I love him; I love him! There, that does me good. I wish I were with you, dear, sitting by the fire undressing, as we used to sit; and I would try to tell you what I feel. I do not know how I am writing this even to you. I am afraid to stop, or I should tear up the letter, and I don't want to stop, for I do so want to tell you all.

I have some thoughts about Lucy and speaking freely. I didn't notice how much emphasis is put on it, but when you're thinking about it specifically in those lines there is a lot going on here. It isn't just Mina who wants to be with Lucy where they can talk freely. Lucy feels the same. The way she starts the letter very politely avoidant about how much Arthur matters to her is probably much closer to how she speaks to most people about him, or even most things. She talks about trying to tell Mina how she felt, about not knowing how she's even saying all this, that she should stop, that she doesn't want to, she's writing this in a quick burst of emotion/courage. And sure, it could just be the overwhelming newness of her romantic feelings, but I think Lucy has a tendency to hide how she really feels if it would rock the boat or upset/worry people - regardless of the situation. You know, she acts like she is fine and happy even if she doesn't feel that way. And (vague hinted spoilers) the ability to speak freely specifically is something that has later relevance for both women, so I find it really interesting to see aspects of it in both their first letters.

I also think it's part of why she likes Arthur speaking slang (and later on another man speaking a different sort of slang) so much. It's more relaxed and individual and gives her a little thrill to deviate from more polite and proper scripts. It isn't something she does on her own, but if someone else initiates it's easier to join them. Or at the very least to enjoy listening to.

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It just hit me that Violet Hunter walking into her new job at the Copper Beeches despite all the warning signs has SO much in common with Jonathan Harker traveling to Dracula’s castle. Violet knew things were Off but wasn’t in a financial position where she could refuse, and took the job in desperation even if it could be dangerous. Jonathan also saw all the red flags, but he’d be scuttling his future if he ditched his first solo job with a wealthy and powerful client. They weren’t physically restrained until they set foot inside those doors, but even before then they weren’t free to refuse because MONEY.

—And on that note, I love how Holmes treats that as a very real pressure and doesn’t judge Violet for accepting the job. Imagine if he took the “well she should have known better than to walk into that situation” approach like a lot of people did with Jonathan!

i think we should all go back to carrying cheap little plastic mp3 players that look strangely edible and only hold like 200 songs

listening to unwritten just as natasha bedingfield intended

What's with people writing books about Van Helsing as a child abuser and a zealous killer. The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series makes him turn into an evil scientist who doesn't care about people dying and abuses his daughter and makes her a vampire. Abraham's Boys makes him beat up and gaslight his sons while he murders "vampires". Mina's Child makes him the true villain of the story. Same with at least one Sherlock Holmes crossover. Like sorry but you're not Subverting Expectations or exploring a character's flaws further, when you mischaracterize them to the point of no recognition you're just making an OC villain with a public domain character's name on him methinks.

I think it’s very easy to make parallels between Adam’s reasoning and incels, but stepping away from it a bit, I think there’s an obvious difference: while incels believe that they have been rejected by “the female population” which they claim to have a right to, Adam feels himself rejected by mankind as a whole. So why is he too demanding a female companion, specifically?

Soon after my arrival in the hovel, I discovered some papers in the pocket of the dress which I had taken from your laboratory. At first I had neglected them; but now that I was able to decipher the characters in which they were written, I began to study them with diligence. It was your journal of the four months that preceded my creation. You minutely described in these papers every step you took in the progress of your work; this history was mingled with accounts of domestic occurrences. You, doubtless, recollect these papers. Here they are.

hmmm something about the creature reading pages from victor’s journal while having no real information about who victor is…. “i began to study them with diligence”… it’s like he’s trying to connect with victor through these pages, to understand him, and to understand himself and his purpose.

it reminded me of the way one reads the bible, if one is religious, to know god and the human condition and the relation between the two.

the pages of the journal are clearly important to the creature. “here they are”, he says; he has carried them with him all this time. how many times has he reread them? this story of his own creation, together with the “domestic occurrences” of his creator, could be considered his own religious text, his own mythology, his own primeval history.

After Hawkins' funeral, Mina says

We came back to town quietly, taking a ’bus to Hyde Park Corner. Jonathan thought it would interest me to go into the Row for a while, so we sat down.

"The Row" she mentions is the Rotten Row: "Rotten Row is a broad track running 1,384 meters (4,541 ft) along the south side of Hyde Park in London. It leads from Hyde Park Corner to Serpentine Road. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Rotten Row was a fashionable place for upper-class Londoners to be seen horse riding. Today it is maintained as a place to ride horses in the center of London."

Mina later on shows that she likes horses, by being kind to them and by being the only one who praises them: "The horses seem to know that they are being kindly treated, for they go willingly their full stage at best speed." and "The dear horses are patient and good, and they give us no trouble." Since "the Row" is the Rotten Row, Jonathan likely suggested Mina the place because he thought her watching some horse riding would comfort her a little after the funeral. He likely had been there on an earlier trip and kept in mind that Mina would like it there.

And despite being in deep grief right after burying the man who he considered a second father and struggling to walk from months of brain fever, he remembered. "Jonathan thought it would interest me".

IIRC, one of the standard academic takes on Dracula is that Mina is rewarded for being a dutiful wife (she learns shorthand, she travels to Budapest) and Lucy suffers for not being that (she has three suitors and wishes she could marry them all, etc).

Today's entry, and the commentary around it, makes me realise how little that holds up, so far at least. Lucy is so painfully dutiful - to her future husband, to her mother, to her friends, to her doctor - and all it's done is made her more vulnerable.

If she eloped with Arthur right now, she might be safe.

If she risked being honest with her mother, she might be safe.

If she put anyone to even slightly more trouble (Arthur, Jack, the servants) and had them stay up with her, she might be safe.

But she behaves like the ideal of a Victorian woman, always deferring to other people and putting their needs first. And that's why she's in so much danger tonight.

EXACTLY! I know it's a theory that used to be popular a while ago but I think it just has no real textual justification? Even her offhand comment about marrying all of her suitors was more about *their* disappointment than anything (since she seems to be perfectly content and in love with Arthur).

It also bears comparing this with the other major Dracula victim we met so far, Jonathan. During his ordeal in the castle we noted several times that it was his dutiful obedience to Victorian standards of education and politeness and societal expectations that helped considerably trap him.

If he wasn't so married to the Victorian idea that foreign peasants cannot possibly have anything interesting to say, he maybe would have heeded the warnings more. If he wasn't so eager to be the best and most polite host ever he might have demanded to go back to the village as soon as possible. Of course, ultimately he probably would have still been trapped, but the added horror of Dracula forcing the pretense of politeness upon him wouldn't have happened. And it's worth noting that it's only after the last veneer of that politeness is lost that Jonathan starts truly fighting.

Time and time again we see that Dracula feeds on what's available but when he can choose he picks the most virtuous, nicest, kindest people around and makes a point of toying with them, dragging their death as long as he can and psychologically torturing them until they are a shade of themselves. It would be easy for Dracula in England to pick prostitutes and transient workers, or maybe even patients from the mental asylum literally next door, and as long as he kept switching it up people would barely notice! But instead he goes for a girl who is surrounded by people who adore her. Lucy might come to his notice out of sheer bad luck (because she's a sleepwalker and therefore more vulnerable to his mind control powers is my guess) but he picks her over and over despite the ever-increasing risk because he LIKES her and he likes her BECAUSE she is so innocent and precious and loved by many.

I feel like if there's a critique of Victorian social mores in Dracula it goes in the opposite direction and it might be unintentional on Stoker's part. I think Stoker just picked a type of victim that would make the story all the more tragic, since they would be easy to fall in love with, which makes sense for a horror author, and people instead tried to turn it into some sort of morality play. Stoker has been very heavy handed about his social critique so far (see: Mina and the New Woman) so I think if he wanted to make that point about Lucy, she would be completely different as a character.

Also, not to turn it into an even longer essay, but "deliberately picking the nicest most virtuous people and destroying them" was the modus operandi of the titular Vampyre from the short story by John Polidori that came out in 1819 (so before Dracula). Like I'm not a Stoker expert but I think it's safe to say that in terms of tropes there would be precedent for this idea of the vampire targeting innocence.

Ophelia...

Ophelia who drowned, bedecked with flowers. And Lucy, bedecked with flowers as if for burial, who describes her experience thusly:

and then I seemed sinking into deep green water, and there was a singing in my ears, as I have heard there is to drowning men;

Ophelia, whose flowers were a warning and a judgement (unheeded), and Lucy's, whose flowers are a ward and and a protection (and will they be heeded?

Ophelia, singing: "there's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember." But Lucy's garlic, like the lotus flowers or the waters of the Lethe, will "make [her] troubles forgotten."

Ophelia, who killed herself - or did she? Did she go to the water or did the water come to her, the gravediggers argue. And Lucy, who, sleepwalking, brings herself to Dracula, under her own power, as Ophelia brings herself to the water - but not of her own volition

Ophelia, deceived by her lover (for her own good?) to her great detriment, locked out of his plans - and Lucy, who must be told nothing, not even the efforts made on her behalf

Ophelia, so dutiful to her only parent, adjusting her romantic plans to please him, devastated utterly by his death. And so dutiful also Lucy, choosing the suitor most approved by her only parent, whose life or death are likely to prove equally devastating

Ophelia, abandoned and failed utterly by the men who love her, who can only act their love by fighting over her tomb. Versus Lucy, beloved by all, whose emperillment only brings them closer to each other for love of her - but nevertheless they fail her, and nevertheless they leave her alone

Ophelia, who might have been murdered by her mother-in-law to keep a deadly secret, dying in Gertrude's care who called her daughter. And Lucy, being just as surely killed by secrecy, left her mother's care which should be the deepest, but who turns her away in her hour of need

Ophelia, guarded closely by Horatio, who leaves in haste upon receiving Hamlet's letter from overseas. Just as Mina, who guarded her so closely in Whitby, leaves Lucy in haste, receiving news of Jonathan via overseas letter

Ophelia, who, as a suicide, must not be buried in hallowed ground - but is anyway, by royal mandate. And Lucy, who made her favorite seat on a suicide's grave. If Lucy dies tonight, her very soul stolen by a creature of darkness, how will she be buried?

Sometimes I will watch a book adaptation as a movie/show and think about how the original text has so much that could benefit a visual medium, but that potential gets completely wasted.

For example, there are plenty of Dracula adaptations where Dracula throws away Jonathan's mirror. This is a good opportunity to show without telling about how many weeks have passed after that until Jonathan attempts his escape. Show him in a stubble that eventually grows into a beard. Make his hair messy, how he wears the same change of clothes for weeks and weeks, it's wrinkled. In general, most adaptations give me the impression that he's been there for a week, max. He was imprisoned for months.

When Dracula steals his clothes on May 31st we get the first large gap between entries, which is almost 18 days, which indicates a variety of things, including depression and despair. Since this can't be communicated through blank pages on screen, there's plenty of opportunity to show it otherwise. He has no mirror, but he has his razor. Show him reach for it, before stopping himself. Is it because he wants to attack his captor, or something else?

There are no mirrors in the castle, and he can't check his own neck if he's been bitten, maybe show him try to find a reflective surface in vain after one of his strange dreams (and they are another great visual opportunity to show his subconscious vs reality). If you go with that route, dial up the horror by getting us to finally see marks on his neck, which he cannot know are there.

There's more, like actually showing Jonathan's "brain fever" disturbing his and Mina's nights and being lost in "the hue of unreality" he tells Van Helsing about. Maybe give him a walking aid. Showing Jonathan clean-shaven since his wedding to show it's an important ritual to him and being on the way to healing. Then he starts growing facial hair again after Mina's attack.

No one ever shows Dracula's forehead scar, which is more than just an identifier of who he is despite his becoming younger. From a storytelling standpoint, it's proof that he is not indestructible, without needing too many words about that. From a symbolic standpoint, it parallels him with the only person Dracula has a psychic bond with, Mina, who also gets a scar on her forehead. Or how he in the end was marked to die by the person who scarred him.

And that's without going with the other characters, who I have thoughts about for each too.

Not to mention so many other books that rely heavily on symbolism. On-screen one can do so much more with Hyde's (as well as Jekyll's) appearance than making him a big monster or an uglier Jekyll, for example. Depending on the route they want to go with. But anyway that's for another time, I'm just having thoughts on directors showing they have a deeper understanding of the text than just "tick the plot boxes".

its so fucking funny that even when not intended, so much of classic literature comes off as overwhelmingly gay because of the bizarre combination of effeminate and overly affectionate and poetic men, which the lit teachers will dismiss as part of the time period, and yet their overwhelming misogyny backfires this as because they hate women so much, there’s a distinct lack of positivity towards women, resulting in all your classic protagonists saying shit like “man women are stupid and emotional - hate them, i spend all my time around men because they’re better. my best friend on the other hand is a specimen of mankind. he speaks with an inherent eloquence that is entrancing to all who watch including me and his smile is so beguiling and i would do anything for him and spend the rest of my life in his presence because-”

like bruh you see this right